I might have a chance to surf an X80 here in the next couple of weeks and would like some help on what weight and where is best. I'm not much of a surfer so all help is appreciated. It's not my boat or Lon's boat and I probably only have half a day to try it out so I would like to have it right.

Well creating list will be important. The older x80's were only one prop. The new ones are dual prop and the wave is all washed out. I would fill whichever side you are surfing and if you have extra sacs fill them and put them in the rear back corner. Plus move everyone to the side you are surfing. Take lots of pictures of the wave!

Thanks Duffy... I'm not sure about the prop and all and I will have to check. I do have the basics of surfing since we do surf a 02 SANTE once and awhile. I'm just hoping to get a dialed system so I dont have to waist time moving sacks and all. I will for sure get some pics and post up what I thought about it.
Thanks again!

Just put as much weight as you can in the back. I would imagine its gonna take a lot of weight to get it to lean at all, but as much as you can in the back corner and everyone on that side. if that doesnt work well maybe slide some weight forward.

Im interested to see a sacked out x80...anyone have pictures? only pictures of X80s i ever see are with people sitting on them lol.

Josh, I'll be passing through SL on Tuesday I can lend you mine. I have 2-400's FH's and 2-750's FH's and a 250/300 that I picked up from Shima. I have one pump but if you can find another you'll cut your fill/dump time in half I trust you completely. I can even lend you a inland squirt model too if you'd like.

Hey there, this is not lon by the way... but I have a 2003 x-80 and by chance i happened to pick up a stranded jet skier. Funny enough the jet ski fits on the swim deck. I was cruising pretty slow with it on and had looked back and the wave was crazy huge and not washed out. i do have a single prop though which prolly helped. Anyways if u can sack that swim deck down i think you might like that wake. good luck

Matt ~~ Really? that would be sick and make the owner think I'm for real... LOL That's the weight you use in yours? YIKES!

Tomas ~~ That's what I was worried about was the big ass swim platform. I hope this works out and we get a massive wave flowing through the empty lake of Powell in the off season. Heck I just might have to see what it can do at 25 mph!

Thanks everybody... I will post up some pics if we can make this go down! I wish I knew what year the boat is. The only pic I have it this one, but your eyes tend to lean towards the Oompa Loompa and not the boat. LMAO!

Brian ~~ Any video I can find it really looks like the wave is really washed out. They all look rideable but nothing over the top. I just emailed the owner to see what weight they run and if he has any pics of the wave. I will keep ya'll updated.

Josh, FH makes them 100# sacs with handles on it, I don't have one but they work well when slamming Avy's (Avalanches) in general. A couple ratchet straps to the handles and tiedowns and that helps alot. I don't know how you'd strap a 400/750 on the swim. So what if it's a little washed out, SURF THAT ****E! LOL

Matt ~~ The owner surfs quite a bit I guess... The boat sits there during the weekends but I guess it's out on the water quite a bit during the week. I will have the whole story here shortly. Still waiting for his email and my boat whore skills to kick in, LOL

I grew up on Powell. It's an amazing lake. I would love to know who surfs an X-80 there, I have to roll over that way for work still and would love to get some surf sets in on Powell!! Is he out of Bullfrog or Wahweap?

Josh ~ WTF? Oompa Loopma looks like he may be rockin' a pair of bindings I used to own! I didn't know when i loaned them to you, you were taking them to Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory. Maybe if you bring those bindings back I'll loan you a 750lb sac and a couple pumps

I cant believe I just saw that??? No driver..REALLY?? Im speechless.lol Im just picturing him falling and then the boat just takes off till it hits something. I love my boat to much for that. Im NEVER speechless. lol. Jet

Truth is if he really wanted to surf alone he should have attached a line from the kill switch cord to his wrist that way if he fell out of the wave the kill switch would have shut off the engine. On the other hand he would be much better served using the" find a third be a third forum" and get some other riders. Maybe someone should post that on his youtube video site as he may not know about wakeworld.

On the other hand, I have seen some inexperienced boat drivers driving so the boat owner could ride who would have been better served if the rider/boat owner had the ability to kill the boat while riding.

I ain't buying it, nobody is that stupid. He doing that for shock value. I bet money he's got someone else either tucked away under the passenger compartment or hiding down under the driver feet. Somebody is spottin I think

I went and looked at a twin screw x-80 yesterday. I am thinking about buying a single screw and doing a bunch of mods to make it a safe surf machine. The thing has tons and tons of potential. First off it's huge, hard to tell from pictures but it's massive. The locker area, under seats, ski locker are all huge! The boat is super tall as well. I bet it's at least 2x as tall as my avalanche. I saw a few issues that would need to be address and fixed. Lack a wakeplate on the single screw would be first. This calms down spray-prop wash and also helps bring the nose down. This would need to be installed. The swim deck is way to big. It would need to be smaller to not affect the wave, so I would make one out of teak or marine ply and have it covered in line-x. It has "surf tabs" or trim tabs need to go. The are mounted at such an angle that I am sure they drag in the wave causing wash. From just looking (I didn't measure)I would guess hidden ballast could be in the 3k-4k range on each side for surfing! The hull design looks pretty good for wave creation as well.

Also I would remove the fresh water tank for custom sacs. It has some panels that would also need to be removed for custom sacs. This thing could be a beast. The engine most single screws has is an idmar 450hp big block with over 500ftlb of torque. Put a surf prop on it and the boat should be able to handle the speed and weight.

I have been able to find some older Mastercraft maristar 280. Same boat as the x-80 minus ballast and a tower in the low 40s and even the high 30's most of them have stock mastercraft towers installed. Ballast would be all custom via me! So not too expensive. A few have been for sale for years. Book value is only in the low 40's for a 2003-2004. The single engine model isn't as sought after. This is still just a dream. Could be epic though. There are a few concerns. The hull isn't the greatest design in my mind. It lacks tracking fins. Has strange cutouts in the transom, middle bottom of the hull. I am sure there are reasons for these. All great surf boats have pretty similar transom shapes. I think the x80 is pretty good.

@Duffy: I would be willing to bet that the best surf wake you can get out of the X80 wont be any better than your Avy. I was at the MC dealer today checking out the X-25 and the MC guys even admitted the X-25 (built on their off-shore hull) is the only boat they have that surfs without having to put at least 3,500lbs in it.

I am just looking for a little safer surf machine. I doubt many waves are better then mine. I honestly like modding things and that would be half the fun. The hull is big and I think it has potential. Look at the picture of the transom. I think it has a pretty pronounced V. Most people including dealers only really know of the x80 as a double screw boat. Double screw= terrible wash. Plus add in things like those surf tabs (drag in the wave) and swim deck (drag in the wave) and no wakeplate and you have a receipt for a washy wave. I just want big, tall and safe and also in my price range

Good thing I don't tow Well 3/4 of a mile to the marina for the summer. The x80 concept would be a huge risk to take. What if I buy it and it doesn't ever have a good surf wave? I would be out a ton of cash. I don't know what I would do to be honestly. Just want big and safe with a minimal amount of money spent. That's why I thought the x-80 would be a fun boat to try.

It's says it's a 2003 X80 so does that mean it's really a 280? I didn't think the x80 was made till like 2005 or so. Email me directly with more info duffymahoney(at)hotmail.com

The only difference between an 280V and X-80 is that the X series comes with a tower/ballast and a few more bling items. The hulls should be exactly the same (at least that is what the MC guy told me today).

Yeah the 280 came out first. Then the x-80 with the tower and bling and ballast. Seems weird that no one has ever put like 3k in ballast in one of these and see what wave could be created.

I really think it would take closer to 5,000lbs. He told me guys are surfing the X-35 with 3,500lbs so I would think the X-80 would take more. The MC guy was explaining to me today why it takes so much weight to surf a MC (except X-25). He told me (I think) that there is a layer of foam or some other flotation material between the hull and the floor (somewhere) which makes MC very buoyant. I dont know if that is true or not, but it will need a lot of weight.

With that said, the X-25 is suppose to have a great wave. I have never seen pics/vid but if you look at the deep V hull and the very large lockers it will remind you of the V226 with a lot of cool gadgets/creature comforts. Which is should because the X-25 is +/- $80K

Personally and I could and have been wrong, I think flatter V hulls take more weight. Thus why most mastercrafts take more weight for a good wave. Most mastercrafts have a very, very flat transom- hull design. Tige has a flatter design then the Avy- Enzo and V226.

The x-80 I crawled around had little- no foam that I could see. Just huge empty areas that went straight to the fiberglass. The bigger the boat the more weight it would take to sink it, so i think you are right about lots of weight. The x80 doesn't share any hull design of any of their other boats, at least that's from the research I have done. I think the single screw has real potential. Just a hard thing to gamble on

Personally and I could and have been wrong, I think flatter V hulls take more weight. Thus why most mastercrafts take more weight for a good wave. Most mastercrafts have a very, very flat transom- hull design. Tige has a flatter design then the Avy- Enzo and V226.

No doubt about that. The hulls also have a "cut out" about 1/2 down the side of the. I did not ask what that was about. Again, I did not notice this on the X-25, which is a deep v hull like our Avy.

Yeah it would be fun to talk the head designer what each design was about. I think the x80 has a pretty pronounced v design. I would guess it's because it's so large and helps handle rough water. I know that the x-80 is sensitive to weight just like the avy and most deep v boats. They actually installed the trim tabs to help with this issue.

Here is one of my ideas. This boat is wide, over a foot wider then my boat. So having weight basically further out should increase it's ability to cause list. Also I would need to do some serious mods to get an x80 surf worthy. I think a big wakeplate would be first. Mastercraft puts short little wakeplates on and I would bet that's one of the reasons they have washy waves. I know on my boat wakeplate design is very important when it comes to how clean the wave is.

Ragboy- I was just at oroville last weekend for a wake 9event but didnt bring the 80, I would totally be down to bring it and do some experimenting.

Duffy- I will email you with more info but you are right its a 2003 280 vld with the tower but no ballast wich I think is a plus because you can know exactly what your putting in the boat. In my own opinion I believe the tower on my boat is wayyy better than these new zero flex tower which i think are crap(my own opinion) I had an 07 x-15 and the tower was crap. Ive had a stand up jet ski on the swim deck which you figure is around 750pds give or take and the wake was insane. For wakeboarding ive had 750 on both sides in the back and a 750 in the middle towards the front and lets just say I was scared to jump it. There is just soooo much room to add weight in this boat. I wish i had taken pics.

Yeah email me. I would love to see pictures of it weigthed. You should totally let wake9 help you weight it. Email me pictures and info, better yet I would love to see pictures of the area next to the engines and under the rear seats on the wall. Also better yet would be quick measurements That way you can fully tell how big custom sacs could be.

Tomas,
I know those rear lockers have a goofy ice- storage chest taking up part of them. I would prob remove those, mastercraft doesn't put them in anymore. So when you measure on each side of the engine will you measure like those were removed? So basic HxWxL of each would be awesome!

"I think the single screw has real potential. Just a hard thing to gamble on"

Don't buy a single screw 80. I heard they are dogs. There was a guy on here years ago that had one and hated it. I test drove a few boats in that size range when I purchased my cobalt. I actually tested the same boat I have but with the single screw. It took it well over 9 seconds to get on plane. Just FYI.

Well I would guess that has more to do with the prop then the boat. A single screw x80 isn't a super heavy boat. Just under 6k pounds. I bet the one you tested had a high speed prop on it. 450hp is a lot. The x80 is just 1k pounds heavier then my current boat with only 315hp and about half the torque. That's a 30% increase in HP and again almost double the torque with only a 17% increase in weight. The fact it's missing a wakeplate would really help planning time. Put a surf prop on a 450hp motor and a wakeplate and that boat would rip your arms off if you hammered it. Having the correct prop is super important with wakeboats.

Like I said, I didn't drive the x80, that was just what someone said. I drove a similiar boat to mine(roughly the same size as the 80) with a single screw. it really sucked, but the boat is lot heavier than 6K.